Kodak Easyshare P712 Review
Review Date: September 1st 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 7M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around
3.5-4Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Kodak Easyshare
P712 which you can select at any time if the camera is in
the creative shooting modes. Here are some 100% crops which
show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
There is no discernible noise at the slowest settings of
ISO 64 and 100, but at ISO 200 noise is clearly visible, and
ISO 400 is virtually unusable. Not a very good performance
from the P712.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft
at the default sharpening setting of Normal and benefit from
some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Alternatively you can increase the in-camera sharpening level
by choosing the High option.
File Quality
The Kodak Easyshare P712 has 5 different file quality settings
available, with 7M Fine being the highest quality JPEG option,
and both RAW and TIFF modes on offer. Here are some 100% crops
which show the quality of the various options, with the file
size shown in brackets.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Kodak Easyshare P712 handled chromatic aberrations extremely
well, with only very limited purple fringing in areas of high
contrast, as shown in the example below.
Macro
The Kodak Easyshare P712 offers a Macro setting that allows
you to focus on a subject that is 10cms away from the camera.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
in Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second
image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Kodak Easyshare P712 are Auto,
Fill, Red-eye, Slow Sync (front, front-red-eye, rear) and
Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a
distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (432mm) |
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And here are some self-portraits. As you can see, neither
the Flash On or the Red-Eye Reduction option caused any red-eye.
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Flash Off (100% Crop) |
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Kodak Easyshare P712 maximum shutter speed is 16 seconds,
which is good news if you're seriously interested in night
photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed
of 16 seconds, aperture of f/8 at ISO 64. I've included a
100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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100% Crop |
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Image Stablization
The Kodak Easyshare P712 has an optical image stabilization
system, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter
speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took a
handheld shot of the same subject with the ISO speed set to
64. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the
second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image
to show the results.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
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Image Stablization On |
| 1/6th / 133mm |
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As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the image is much
sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really
does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a
successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
Overall Image Quality
The Kodak Easyshare P712 produced images of average quality
during the review period. The 7 megapixel images are soft
straight out of the camera and ideally require some further
sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you
can increase the in-camera sharpening level. The Kodak Easyshare
P712 dealt very well with chromatic aberrations, with only
very limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast
situations. Macro performance is below average, allowing you
to focus as close as 10cms away from the subject. The built-in
flash worked well indoors with no red-eye and good overall
exposure. The night photograph was very good too, with the
maximum shutter speed of 16 seconds offering lots of scope
for creative night photography. Image stabilization is a feature
that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that
works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light
conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range.
The Kodak Easyshare P712's worst feature in terms of image
quality is the high noise levels at ISO 200 and above, limiting
the camera to use outside or in good lighting conditions,
although the effective image stabilisation system does compensate
for this to some extent.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Kodak Easyshare P712
have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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